How to Make a Delicious Clover Tea
Clover grows wild in many areas and it has long been used as an herbal remedy in the form of a steeped tea. Clover is a pleasant plant containing many nutrients such minerals like calcium and Vitamins B and C. Medical research has shown that the isoflavones in red clover prevent some forms of cancer. Red clover is the most common American variety of clover. It has historically been used as a home remedy treatment for skin rashes, children’s cough, and as a blood thinner. Because red clover does contain isoflavones—which have estrogen-like side effects, some may choose to avoid it.
Red clover is used in a variety of ways in the kitchen, but making clover tea is the most common method of consumption.
Step 1 - Harvest Clover
First gather 1 or 2 handfuls of clover blossom. This plant is easy to harvest and may even be growing in your own backyard or garden. Before gathering the flowers, ensure that no pesticides or other poisons have been used in the area. Keen plant growers might decide to grow their own clover on a window or in a greenhouse in order to ensure the quality of the blossom.
Step 2 - Dry Blossoms
Put the blooms between 2 paper towels and allow to dry naturally in a warm, dry environment, such as an airing cupboard. You can also dry quickly using a microwave. Once the clover is dry, take off the petals and dispose of any thick stalks.
Step 3 - Make Tea
To make a clover tea, you will need:
- 1 cup dried blossoms
- Dried mint
- Honey
Place the blossoms and mint into a bag or into a tea leaf strainer. Lower into a pot of boiling water. For each person drinking the tea, there should be 1 cup of dried blossoms to 4 cups of water. When the leaves have been in the hot water for 10 minutes, strain, and then add the honey to the tea.
Fresh Clover Tea
It is also possible to make clover tea just using fresh-picked blossoms, although you will need to use 2 cups of flowers for every 4 cups of water if they are fresh. It may also be more difficult to remove stalks and other tough fibers if the blossoms are not dried.
Making a long-term clover tea is also very simple: place the dried blossoms and a few clover leaves at the bottom of a glass jar. Fill with boiling water, and then close the lid tightly—allowing the herb to remain in the water overnight. The next day, strain out any clover material, and then drink as often as required. New batches can be made regularly.
Iced Clover Tea
Instead of making traditional hot tea—you can also make an iced tea from your clover with 6 cups of water and an ordinary tea bag. Add the clover blossoms and mint to the mixture once the tea has been added to ice, and then serve with honey or lemon.
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![Jen S.]()
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Stephini Candella is a Nutritionist, and attended the University of Texas for a B.S. in Nutrition and Didactics. She was a manager for a small gourmet restaurant, and has spent over 15 years cooking as a hobby for health. She has extensive knowledge of food science, micro-nutrition, history of the classic foods from across cultures, modern commercial and home cooking processes, disease restricted diet meal planning (cardiovascular, GAPS, diabetes), and popular diet trend (Paleo, Keto, Vegan) diets. Stephini most enjoys meal planning that focuses on simplicity and cost-effectiveness, and she strongly believes these are the foundations for delicious and healthy meals—the basis for a happy life. She is addicted to reading food labels, and uncovering the nutritional benefits of traditional cooking techniques of the classical foods across cultures. If you let her, she will talk your ear off over her fascination for how traditional fermentation cultivates the metabolic byproduct of certain bacteria into nutritional gold for human health. Stephini is also a CRLA (Certified Reading and Writing English Tutor) and has professionally tutored college students as well as K-12 students for an accumulated 15 years expanding to private school curriculum development and teaching in STEM and STEAM. She has been a professional researcher for multiple private and non-profit companies and organizations including the University of Texas Food and Housing Division. There, she researched and wrote recommendations for the University’s campus wide composting and food waste reduction initiatives, design and management of campus wide food waste studies, and the procurement of technologies best suited for large scale composting and food waste reduction. As a former Red Cross shelter manager, she has worked with her National Guard, and the US Army and Marines in search and rescue, procuring, and deploying multiple shelters serving thousands of evacuees. She has overseen the management of over 25 shelters in the state emergency operation center, and was held responsible for procurement of meals, medical supplies, and basic necessities. She also assisted in local county natural disaster rescues, providing insurance evaluations and recommendations for approving families affected by natural disasters to receive financial aid, housing, and food assistance. In addition, she volunteered for her local food pantry and domestic violence shelter where she prepared food. These discovered passions for emergency aid volunteer work led her to pursue national and state EMS licensures. She has traveled from Houston to New York to Seattle on a Leadership Scholarship, listening to world renowned scholars on the values of great leadership. Her favorite being the opportunity to sit and connect with the grandsons of Gandhi, listening to their first hand childhood experiences growing up alongside their grandfather organizing and executing his activism. Presently, Stephini conducts research and assistance on customer relationship management campaigns for 30 year veteran executives and business owners as an operations manager for a small, boutique executive assistance CRM firm. She has retired into a quiet, family-centric life, and can be found living between her home and college towns where she is raising her children. There, she is imparting her love for DIY learning and food on to them in the hopes that self-directed creativity and production will bring to them the same sense of holistic wellness that she’s experienced for herself.
